601 I Got Outplayed!
I had to wait. I let my dagger get a taste of his blood and energy. I just needed to call back my dagger with a snap of a finger and then let it go and look for that bastard.
Once I would be done here, I'd do that!
I could have brought my dagger back. But I feared if I did that, it would lose the effect of tasting that bastard's energy and blood.
So I planned to get it back once I was sure that bastard was here in this world. Something told me he was able to hide inside outside worlds.
It wouldn't make any sense if I tried to track him to an alien world! I had to wait, wait for a chance when I'd be sure of his existence in this world before trying to find him.
And this chance was getting near, but not today.
My souler heard the order and executed it at once. They were standing idle, feeling bored indeed and probably frustrated.
And now there was such a good chance for them to vent out such frustration in the field.
They ran fast, going outside the city and off my sight in mere minutes. I didn't worry about them. After all, I'd go and join that ground fight once I ended up here.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
I turned my attention fully to the big underwater fight. This lake had a vast space underneath it, giving me the same feeling I had when I went after the Hector portals from previous battles.
As my threads got constant energy supply from me, they kept controlling more monsters per each minute. However as there was a new enemy nearby, I had to get this done fast.
"Let's work on full power then," I waved my left hand and instantly lots of blue grade bones appeared.
Up till now, I was only using green grade bones in fueling my techniques. Yet at this moment I had to use these blue bones, to get a much bigger amount of energy than the green bones could provide.
As expected, once the blue bones turned into specks of light, I felt a sudden increase in the amount of energy passing through my body. I simply controlled all this to pass through my right arm towards my technique and form much more threads than before.
This time, not only the already formed threads got a boost and started spreading out in a frenetic way, new threads began to form fast, expand in a flash and look for targets to hit.
This increased the pace of me controlling monsters, and that made the water battle much worse for my enemy.
*Roar!* ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
After an entire hour, I started to hear the roars of monsters coming closer to the city. I didn't know what would happen if my soulers to stop them.
But the result was clear, they failed! And that meant I had to intervene soon.
"You used your pillars, let me use mine then," I took out the Hector race pillar and used its shield skill.
The moment the pillar broke free and expanded to reach the clouds, I knew the enemy plan this time would fail.
The shield would protect me and the city from any damage. The enemy could stand outside, watching helplessly as I killed their water brothers.
However, just as my pillar expanded, a new thing that never happened before happened!
My pillar used to go up there, and boom the shield would be formed. However just as it reached a certain height, a boom came but not from my pillar.
Many booming sounds came from all the pillars in the distance. Just seeing their bright light made me realise I made mistakes here.
These pillars… they weren't the portals that brought these monsters here!
I… Got outplayed! Once more! Damn! I grew tired of this!!
These pillars… They weren't just for show! They weren't different kinds of portals as I imagined… They were here to seal my shield skill from my pillar, depriving me from using my shield to protect my city.
So, my shield wouldn't get through, and the soulers weren't able to hold monsters back… What should I do then?
"Let me see what caused all this first," I turned around and started to examine the world outside of the city using my Hawk Eye skill.
And once did, I got to spot what went wrong and caused all this mess.
It wasn't the doing of the monsters, but flying monsters that kept hovering in a far away distance from my city to be hard to be seen by naked eyes.
That damn bastard! He meticulously thought about this!
So he was pushing my souler back and keeping them in check using this method. I scanned the place, and saw the number of those flying beasts did not exceed ten thousand.
But I didn't have enough dragons to compete with them. And I was busy dealing with the monsters under water.
What should I do then?
I thought about summoning dragons, but my soul count was as low as twenty million for now. The dragons I'd summon wouldn't help at all!
"Well, if I have no other way, then I should use fodders to buy me time," I opened the chat with the nymph lady before sending:
[Do you have a batch of races ready?]
[Sure! I told you I have a lot this time!]
I forgot to accept her offer back then. And luckily I didn't.
[Send them over here right now!]
[In another fight?]
[I have a troublesome foe that keeps annoying me]
[A foe? That's hard to believe, hahaha!]
[Just send them over, I got little time to spare]
[Ok, on the way]
I knew I had to sign their contracts before anything else. As she sent this batch over, I realised how much she gathered for me.
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ The biggest delivery so far was two hundred million. But this one… She sent a bill for five hundred million! Damn fierce!
I knew most of them would be lost in this battle. But I had no other choice but to do that.
602 Ending A Battle To Start Another
As portals flashed around me, I started signing contracts like crazy. I didn't forget to issue an order to go and fight once I completed lots of contracts.
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ In less than one hour, millions of my races flooded the entire land! Even if he prepared flying monsters to kill my soulers and forces, facing such a huge number was fatal for his scheme.
So it wasn't a surprise that the sounds of roars that were drawing near me with each minute started to grow distant until they vanished.
Using the number tactic here was effective. With such a grand number of races coming here, I could simply drown my enemies with them.
[Just send fifty million here, not more] this was enough to secure the situation. Even if I ended up with a couple of millions at the end, I wouldn't get dissuaded with such a result.
[Sure, they are your boys]
Securing the current battlefield ended, and now I had to conclude the fight in the lakes.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
The size of the caves under the lakes was immense! I couldn't see what was deep down there yet, but something told me there were lots of portals, like the ones used by the Hectors.
"Wait a second… Weren't there many aquatic races in the previous batches?" recalling this made me issue a broader to my last controlled races.
[Any aquatic race, come here and kill the monsters in the lake]
Just giving this order was enough to make lots of races turn around and come here. I looked at the hundreds of thousands entering the lake water and vanishing deep underneath.
Wow! I was this close from missing this chance! Aquatic races were like aquatic monsters, fierce in water, weak on land.
If I let them fight the ground monster, it would be a great waste. Luckily I got to recall this simple detail. And like always, tiny details made all the difference. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
With such unexpected move and addition, the water battle started to grow fiercer. These races helped to crush all the monsters above the caves level in less than half an hour.
Then during the next five hours, the battle in the big caves raged hot, even dying the water of the lake here pink.
The caves down below were like different worlds on their own! The simple size made it clear they expanded in tens of miles, covering up large distances on lands that went beyond the borders of Detroit.
At some point, my threads started to counter portals. I didn't have the means to crush them using my threads, and I thought about going down there and crush them myself.
But I was worried that son of b*tch. If he prepared something for me down there, like a seal or entrapment shield or something, then I'd end up facing great trouble indeed.
[Go and crush those portals first] I had to use my aquatic races for this task. If they weren't enough, I'd call forth for more aquatic races from that lady.
With the support from my controlled monsters from the side, these races started to crush portals one after another. This came at the expense of losing too many of them and my monsters, but gradually the effect of this started to show up.
In less than one hour, the battle down there calmed down. The monsters coming out stopped with the destruction of all gates. And the remaining hostile monsters here weren't enough to pose any threat at all.
At last! The water battle ended! And it was time for me to shift my attention towards the other hot fight, the one on the ground.
The fight there was little different than the fight on water. And the reason for that was clear.
I haven't taken part in that fight yet!
Even with hundreds of thousands of races rushing all the time out of the portals, the frontline didn't even get half distance close up to the pillars.
I had to get to these pillars. I would crush portals, but such annoying sealing pillars weren't going to end in the same way.
I wanted them! I wanted anything special that bastard had! I lacked flying monsters, right? Then why not would I turn those annoying flying things at the distance into my force?
As I upped the game, and during the past six hours of fighting, my enemy brought much more of those flying beasts.
Their number now was close to one hundred thousands. With the lack of any weapon or force to target them, they were like deadly mass destruction weapons.
I had my own mass destruction weapons, my fallen gods. But using them would be a waste.
I kept them attacking the lakes here using my chariot as their vehicle. But for a few hours now, they didn't have anyone to attack and kill.
I didn't think about using them to pressure the enemy on the ground. I wanted to land like lightning, crush all the ground forces while taking control over the flying ones at the same time.
Like this, my dear foe wouldn't have time to adapt or correct anything.
"Time to wrap things here," I muttered to myself before opening my friend list. [Where are you now?]
[Just near you. Damn! These pillars are sending forces to stop my retreat]
Oh! Was that so? Did that bastard send forces also to attack the jumper?
Interesting! Did he think this was enough to pressure me? Humph! I'd prove to him with actions how deeply wronged he was!
[Come out] I sent this to all the forces underwater. They cleared all the enemies in the entire lakes in this region.
So I didn't need them. At this battle, I cared more about having fodders than building the aquatic army of mine.
I went to my chariot, boarded it and stood in the middle of my fallen gods, Bulltors, and shield warriors like I was a warlord standing in the middle of his scary troops.
603 Forming A Flying Army Of Monsters
As I boarded the chariot, I started to closely check the situation of the up front battle.
The enemy was doing all great using his flying monsters squad. They managed to push back any forces of mine, soulers or races, using their aerial advantage.
But such a thing was going to end right now.
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ "Listen up," I said, speaking to my fallen angels, dragons, krakens, monsters, and other races that were coming out from the lake, "you focus on the ground monsters, and leave those annoying flies to me."
*Roar!*
The loudest response came from my dragons. They roared while others yelled and issued their war cries. As for my fallen gods, they simply kept their silence, turned to focus on the battle up front, selecting their targets.
"Leave those pillars to me, crush any portal, and kill any enemy… Attack!"
I took out my glaive and pointed towards the front with my left hand. As for my right hand, it worked fast to perform the first technique of mine.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
Those aerial monsters… Those one hundred thousand or more of them… They were going to be all mine!
I timed the attacks together, to let my threads spread in such an immense amount towards the distant flying monsters while my ground forces attacked.
The fallen gods were really scary! Each single attack of these dudes cleared a big area of the monsters. Even with the high influx coming from all the portals far behind, the monsters couldn't keep up with their attacks.
*Roar!*
As I got closer, I gotta see these flying monsters clearly. They were a hybrid kind of flying beasts, mixing tigers with eagles, with claws so sharp and mighty like they belonged to bears.
Their bodies weren't as huge as the aquatic monsters from before, but they were bigger than any ground monster.
They looked fierce! Especially with that horn coming out from the middle of their big skulls. I was glad that the bastard selected such a hybrid kind of monster to take part in this battle. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
Like this, I'd gain a stronger breed of flying monsters. They used long ranged attacks, mainly by waving their claws or using their roars. But unlike my dragons, these monsters were only wind based attacking beasts.
That wasn't bad. After all they managed by all these wind attacks to kill and stop my forces from progressing forward easily.
And that would stop right now.
As my boys started their brutal attack over the ground forces, the threads of mine flew like thrown daggers towards these flying monsters.
In return, they shifted their attacks over my chariot. With my chariot's shield, they had zero chance at getting to me.
As for my threads, there was nothing here to stop them. They attacked and penetrated hundreds of these big flying beasts' bodies.
Unlike the easily controlled aquatic monsters from earlier, these flying monsters showed a fierce resistance to my control.
They were hybrid monsters after all, one of the fiercest monsters in the entire monster grading system.
Their mental strength was much higher than any normal monster. And they weren't distracted by their desires or bloodlust. So I took roughly five minutes to control the first eight hundred monsters of mine.
[Keep attacking me!]
And the first order I gave them was as such. Prior to this, I used to turn monsters I controlled over their surrounding ones. However this tactic would end up with many losses.
It was a result I didn't want to see.
So instead of that, I kept them attacking my chariot without batting an eye. What was the use of their attacks anyway? Against my sturdy shield, they held no chance at breaking through it.
Once these monsters got controlled, more threads gushed out. I also took another batch of blue grade bones and started to absorb and channel their energy towards my technique.
I wanted to expand the reach of my threads in quantity and quality, to take control over the entire flying monster army in the shortest span of time.
At the first half an hour, things went smoothly like I wanted. My chariot shielded the attacks from all these flying beasts, allowing my ground forces to finally show their worth.
They pushed the frontline fast, killing anything that stood in their path without any hesitation or mercy.
As for my fallen gods, they kept clearing areas and gradually started to focus over the areas near the pillars.
These folks fought by my side for long enough to start adapting to my fighting tactics. If I was leading them right now with my full attention, I'd have given them the same order.
Such a change in the ground battle seemed to alarm the enemy of mine. After the first half of an hour, the flying monsters started to show a development.
They started to fly away all of sudden, moving away from my chariot and the reach of my threads.
They broke out in different groups, each containing at least five hundred monsters. Once they did so, they flew lower and started raining their wind attacks over my ground forces.
However, the bastards moved a little late. When he gave such an order, out of the initial plus one hundred thousand monsters here, only less than thirty thousand responded to his call.
Yet even with such a small number going away from my threads, I didn't give any order to hunt them down.
I said I'd take all of them into my custody, and I would!
So instead of ordering my forces around to aim at these flying beasts, I left my dragons, flying monsters, fallen gods, and the strong weapons on my chariot to attack the ground monster.
As for me, I moved my chariot around, chasing after those monsters. At the same time, I limited the number of threads coming out to be only a thousand.
In return for that, I added all the extra energy to lengthen these threads and enhance their agility. Like this, I didn't need to get so close to those fast flying beasts.
I focused mainly on getting closer, and left the rest for my threads.
604 The Jumper Is Here
Each group would take around a quarter to get controlled. Then I'd turn my eyes towards another group. I kept doing this until all the flying monsters got controlled at last.
"Sign the contracts," I said amidst my laughs. Before this battle, my aerial dragon force was so little that it did not even come closer to ten thousand.
But now they were over a hundred thousand, mostly formed from the strong hybrid monsters.
They were much better than my flying beasts I got from the dungeon testing grounds. These monsters from the dungeon test were considered mainly defensive types of monsters.
Compared to my dragons and the newly acquired monsters, they were best serving at the back.
But before this, my low number of dragon forces limited their actions, making me to use them in offence more than defence.
That ended up with them getting more losses than needed. But now this is all going to change.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
These hybrid tiger and eagle monsters would form the main bulk of the army, the dragons would be the elites and generals, and those defensive flying beasts would act as the shield.
Like this, my first aerial army was given birth to, setting a standard for the rest of the yet to come flying armies.
This took almost four hours to get done. During this time, my ground forces did a great job at pushing back most of the monsters and forcing them to limit their activities around the pillars and portals.
As I got this close, I finally saw the portals. They were really unique. Unlike other portals I met before, these ones were surrounding the ground horizontally, as if they were drawn on earth.
And in their centre, the pillars existed. That made it hard for my boys to close the portals.
I gave them the order to not attack the pillars. So they couldn't attack these portals as well. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
"Hmm… So to take down the portals I have to crush the pillars?" I pondered while examining the current situation. "Who said I can't hit the ground without harming the pillars?"
I turned my eyes towards the ground monsters gushing out from these portals. There were hundreds of pillars under my sight, with hundreds of portals surrounding them.
"As I controlled the water and air forces, it's time to control the ground ones as well," I was still activating my technique. With a single thought, I moved my threads towards the monsters coming out from these portals.
In fact, this wasn't my way to crush those portals. I didn't plan on taking control over these monsters and turning them around to hit the portals.
If that bastard thought I had no way to deal with these portals without harming the pillars, then he was mistaken!
But first let me add more forces to my army. I didn't like the idea of using the forces I bought from the Bringold impact.
These races had a much better stage to perform at. My second Earth world needed them to rebuild.
I started controlling and forcing contracts over the ground monsters, then led them to go and stand by my forces' side.
As for my forces, I gave them the order to stop fighting. They aren't needed anymore. I, alone, was more than enough to deal with these forces.
I noticed that some of the monsters were sent in the opposite direction of mine. They were going to harass the jumper.
Even if their numbers weren't even close to the ones I was facing here, I did my best to control most of them as well.
This way, the pressure exerted over the jumper would be relieved, letting that jerk break through that tight encirclement and join me.
I kept doing this for a couple of hours until I finally saw the early signs of the jumper's army.
They were in chaos! No stable formation, retreating in easy steps like they were running for their lives.
This… It looked much worse than what I thought before.
But with their approach, it meant the jumper wasn't far. "Time to wrap things up," I turned towards the portals and pillars, looking at them in a cold gaze.
"Portal!" This time I used my second technique using my left arm. The second technique formed a big portal, with thick and long arms that moved to grab the corners of these portals, forcibly extracting them from the ground, and lifting them high up towards the portal.
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ And in the middle of these portals, the pillars stood there.
"Come here!" as the portals were extracted in such a way and were heading towards my portals, I acted and merged the first and second technique together.
The merge yielded in a big black sphere, more thick arms that were under my total control now. I controlled most to go and grab the remaining portals around, while the few left moved to harvest the pillars.
It was just a simple task of pulling the pillars out of the portal's centres. There was no resistance thanks to my black energy encompassing these portals now and permeating them.
The pillars rested in my inventory for now. As for the portals, they ended up being absorbed into the black sphere, sent to my shadow world, and let them merge with my black energy clump to add more energy to it.
This didn't take more than half an hour, and all the portals and annoying pillars were gone.
"Come on board," I spotted the jumper running from far. That dude… He always looked calm and collected.
But he looked in a totally different image at this moment. His hair was dishevelled, his armour and gears were broken at many spots. Even his mask had two deep grooves, showing a porcelain white smooth skin underneath.
He didn't even have time to repair his mask! That meant only one thing… There was a mighty foe coming after him.
But he didn't say anything! Was his pride and arrogance standing in his way for asking for help, admitting his shitty situation?
I moved my eyes further away, looking using my Hawk Eye skill towards the hordes of monsters attacking the monster army.
605 With A Single Move...
Sigh! Out of the grand monster army I gave to him, the army of millions, only a hundred thousand or less remained.
Damn! That jumper… Was he cursed or something? Was his ability in ruining any good army I gave to him? Damn!
These monsters were gathered with my hard efforts. Even when I dealt with that scary dark realm monster, I didn't end up losing most of them like that!
What just happened to make him lose such sizable forces in less than a day? What happened for him to end up in such bad shape?
I kept looking, and the more I looked, the more puzzled I became.
"The ground worms!" However, when he reached my chariot using the rope I threw to him, he shouted even before he could stand up straight, "they were fierce and terrifying ground worms… They have an army of them, a big and mighty army… Damn! They must be hybrids!"
"Ground… Worms!!!" My experience dealing with such monsters was the one when I tried to pass through the Lincoln tunnel. It ended up bad for me and my boys, almost ending up dead.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
"They are everywhere! They come like lightning, out of the blue, eat up lots of my monsters, then vanish back like they didn't appear!"
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ I gulped. What he was describing wasn't the normal ground worms for sure. "The ground… It didn't show any hole or any trace of their appearance?" I asked, praying this wouldn't be the case.
"Yes… How did you know that?!!" He gave me such a shocked look, a look filled with fear and doubt.
"Dammit!" I cursed, "Thundering Might!"
I didn't even take a single moment to breathe. I instantly took out my pillar, even shouted the name of the skill while it was still in midair and didn't yet fall into my hand.
*Buzz!* ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
"Damn!" Just as the pillar expanded, an earth shattering buzzing sound came from a single direction. There I saw a grand pillar rising up to the sky, as if it was answering to the challenge of my pillar.
And next to it, I saw a silhouette. He wasn't that much different from a human, cladded in a dark cloak, covering up all of his features and body.
He was like a death god coming out from hell, shrouded in black fog like he was darkness itself. He was my foe, and he stood there, not that damn far from me, issuing me such a daring challenge.
Do you want me? I dare you to come!
That was what I thought about at this moment, as if he was standing a few steps away and saying these words with a sneer.
Damn! Damn! Damn! He was there and I couldn't even move a finger to get him!
"Get back!" I had to save what I could, "Get to the city! Retreat! All forces retreat!"
And with the next breath, I called back all my warriors on the ground and in the air, hoping that my newly summoned flying monsters would listen to the order and execute it swiftly and without any moment of delay.
There was no time to waste here!
"You… Do you know about these scary worms?!!" The jumper didn't let me work in peace. As if the stress all around wasn't enough, he kept asking while I moved my chariot back as fast as I could.
"They are the damn worm sovereigns, a mighty race in the entire monster family!" I shouted while inwardly cursing. Why was that bastard so hard to deal with? Why was he armed with such strength, resources, and mighty forces on his side?
I reached the city and didn't even turn to see what of my forces came here before trying to use the Thundering Might skill again.
But like before, that damn pillar at the distance stopped it.
"Why are you acting like this?" from the side, the jumper asked.
"This breed of monsters are terrifying! They don't dig in the ground like any worm, they swim in Earth like fish swimming in water! They come without warning, attack without mercy, and return back fast without leaving a single trace behind! They are like shadows! They move in large numbers, enough to cover up this entire place and kill everyone in it!"
"This… Is what happened to me…" the jumper looked shaken, "I thought…"
"It's not your mistake," I sighed, "you just faced up something that's not supposed to appear here before quest thirty or something."
This kind of monster was called the reaper of death. Once appeared at any place, not a single soul would survive.
One thing stood between these and anyone, which was the cities and towns! Something in the setting of the apocalypse made it impossible for these worms to move like they used to in the areas of cities and towns.
If they dared to come, then I'd hunt them down easily. However I knew my enemy wouldn't risk such a thing. He knew the major flaw in these forces, just like I did.
Dammit! I watched my grand army of monsters retreating fast towards Detroit. At this moment, I realised why that bastard tried to take down the city and ruin it.
He wanted to deprive me of the only hope left for me to save this grand army here!
And that also let me know why he tried to control cities and towns in such a linear path, cutting my kingdom body into two halves.
He would spread these worms around, making sure I'd lose a large stretch of land and even lose contact with the outside world.
Like this… I'd end up entrapped inside my kingdom.
Damn! With a single move, he screwed me up! Damn f*cking son of b*tch!
*Swish!* *Swish!* Swish!*
Just as part of my forces entered the city, A gigantic tubular shaped monster came out of the blue, penetrated ground like it wasn't there, rose up high in the air and started to chew the forces they engulfed in their wide opened mouths!
606 Fighting Against The Ground Worms
Their body size was huge, reaching over tens of metres in diameter and hundreds of metres in length! Just a single one of them looked like a gigantic pillar, reaching so damn high in the sky in mere blinks of an eye, threatening even the high up flying monsters.
Their mouths were enough to cover up an area one hundred metres in diameter. It was just brutal, scary, and fierce!
They showed up without warning, giving only such a sound when their colossal bodies passed through air. They appeared, engulfed my monsters, chewed them while returning back to the ground like they were swimming in water!
Damn fierce! Damn terrifying! They were the scary reaper of death!
"They are here!" the jumper pointed out, in a not needed move or statement. I had to sigh, shake my head in helplessness, while watching many of my hard earned forces getting chewed and swallowed like they were nothing.
Damn! These monsters came in such large numbers to exceed a thousand! Of course a thousand monsters weren't anything to me before. But with these monsters, a thousand was a terrifying number without doubt!
They kept rising up and getting back to the ground before rising up at further away places. They targeted the densest spots of my forces, trying to kill as many as possible before they'd arrive in the city.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
"They… Don't attack the city…" the jumper finally got it. He looked at me in such a way that proved how shocked he was.
But I had no time to say anything to him. If that bastard thought I was out of options here, then he was mistaken!
"Go, bind these monsters for me!" I still had my merged technique ready. I sent the thick arms around, grabbing any monster they could.
Considering the huge bodies of these monsters, trying to control or even freeze their movements using only a few of my arms was a joke!
I tried to cover up many monsters at first, but I failed! The monsters returned to the ground, taking with them my arms, forcing them to stretch with their fast movement speed.
"Damn! Come out!" I felt the instant pressure of energy consumption from such a way. I either should cut off my arms, or enforce them with more energy. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ And I chose the latter!
When the bones appeared and dissolved into energy, the energy strengthened my arms. This time, I controlled them to surround ten monsters only.
It wasn't much indeed, but it was a start. Ten monsters got wrapped up with my thick and fast growing black arms, giving them a much scarier look.
I didn't give a damn about that! I forced my arms to stop these ten monsters, managing to succeed in seven while the other three returned back to the ground.
Ok… Seven was a good number as a start.
"What are you trying to do?!" The jumper started to be annoying, asking and speaking all the time.
"Shut up for now!" I had no other option but to shout like this at him. I had to focus, focus to control such gigantic beasts and make them under my control.
Of course the merged technique didn't only have such an ability. It also had the ability to draw these monsters near my sphere and absorb them into the shadow world.
Letting such fierce monsters get absorbed was a waste! I planned to control them and force them to serve me.
I started first to grab these seven monsters back to the city. However just as I was trying to do so, many of these monsters came attacking these seven.
"They are trying to kill them!!!" The jumper was startled by this, as much as I was.
But unlike him, I kept my thoughts organised and under control inside my mind. That bastard thought he could kill these monsters to deprive me from controlling them.
However, who told him that these monsters couldn't move under my control? Unlike the ground monsters which were fixed to a point in the ground, these were carried high in the air.
I did my best to evade most of these attacks using my technique of thick and densely packed arms. Only a few hits landed, not enough to endanger my seven monsters.
I just regretted not having stronger mental strength, or else I'd go full out and control more of them.
I dragged these seven while the rest of the monsters came attacking fiercely. They moved fast, and I dragged these seven even faster!
"Phew! They are in!" I muttered while feeling the cold sweat covering up my forehead and back. It felt so damn intense during the past couple of minutes.
But they were worth the trouble! Seven monsters now lie on the ground, fiercely twisting and resisting my arms with no chance of breaking free.
The moment they stepped into my city, they were considered doomed!
"It's your fault to try and push them so damn near me," unlike what the jumper and that son of b*tch thought I'd do, I let loose most of the arms from around these seven monsters, launched them fast at many more monsters near the city.
I grabbed twenty-two this time, ending up with fifteen getting dragged back to the city.
Then I repeated this, while the monsters rising up high in the air tried to get back as fast as they could to the ground.
I knew this was my moment, the only mistake that bastard made in the heat of the battle.
I only needed to drag these monsters for tens of metres to enter the city zone. Once they stepped over this forbidden land, they would lose their most important advantage; the ability to get through earth!
Take out such ability off them and they would turn into normal monsters like any other! But with greater bodies and much mightier strength.
I was racing against time here! I even moved my chariot close to the border of the city, to shorten the duration needed for my arms to go back and forth.
607 A Quarrel With The Jumper
In the span of half a minute, I dragged over fifty monsters here while the rest ran away and hid under the ground.
"Fifty… Not bad," I looked at all the twisting monsters here before adding in cold time, "it's time to add a new breed to my army."
Taking control over these monsters took much longer time than anything else I experienced! It took roughly an hour to control them, and once controlled they signed a contract and became mine.
I consumed lots of bones during this period, not for them but for other monsters out there.
The monsters didn't stop attacking my forces, and I didn't stop hunting them down. During the first hour, I managed to snatch fifty more monsters here, dragging them in a few numbers, seven, five, and even two at some occasions.
I kited them down bit by bit, even thought about letting my forces stand back there and let the monsters come at them.
Well… It might work, but I needed fresh races more than the ones I lost!.
This chase continued for two hours. In the end, out of my mighty tens of millions army, only close to one million survived.
Luckily out of the slightly over a hundred thousand flying monsters I had, eighty thousand managed to escape back to the city.
The loss was big, but the gains weren't small either!
I ended up having two hundred and sixty of these worms, almost taking one quarter of the big army that bastard brought here.
"You… It's really something!" from the side, the jumper sighed, shook his head, "if I only have that earth shattering class of yours and that damn weird cultivation base, I'd have done much better!"
"For real?!" I snorted, knowing that the jerk was trying to keep his face. He replaced his mask while I was busy fighting in the past two hours, and got new gears to replace those old and damaged ones.
He looked just like what he looked before, arrogant, mighty, and aloof. But I was sure he was still shaking inside, not in any suitable form to fight or lead an army anytime soon.
"By the way," I recalled leading the army, I said, "what's wrong with you and your armies? Why did every army I gave to you ended up in such a miserable state?"
I pointed towards the few forces remaining here. Out of the big and mighty army that he had and I gathered, only this few remained.
"This… Isn't it my fault!" he had nothing else to say but this.
"I expected better," I had to knock some sense back into the thick skull of his, "this is your second time losing a big army. The third will come with consequences."
"What? I told you, it wasn't my fault!"
"You won't lead an army for half a year," I continued my words, totally ignoring his useless remark, "if such a thing was repeated after that, you will be demoted for a year."
"That's… Not fair!"
"Don't yell like that at me, just try to get better and be a good leader. Sigh! Out of our entire team, you are the only one screwing your armies in such a way!"
"It's not my damn fault!"
"You are the general leader of the army, don't give me such a bullshit excuse! I want results, not damn excuses for failures!"
I didn't like his arrogant attitude. Even when he was facing defeats, he still saw himself in the right. That was wrong!
Failing isn't the problem. As long as we could learn from it, it didn't matter. But failing without seeing even what brought all this down… This was a great mistake, much bigger than failing itself.
"Then tell me, genius, what caused my failures? What are my mistakes?"
He crossed his arms and spoke in such a challenging way. Damn! Even till this point he didn't see where he screwed up!
"You went up ahead, way too far towards the north," I said without batting an eye.
"I was expanding the lands for you! And you agreed to do so!"
"Expanding a territory? Humph! What a joke! Then tell me, master general, did you control cities and towns during your advance? Did you leave behind stationed forces to defend what you conquered?"
"This…"
"Tell me then," I knew he didn't do that! If he did, then he would get alarmed fast when the first armies of the enemy appeared in this part of the world! "Did you expand while broadening your connection with your base here? Did you work on broadening the lands next to here?"
"I…" he hesitated, and I continued:
"Tell me then, did you even f*cking damn checked this area and saw if it was safe and secured or not?"
"Your boy is supposed to control and secure these regions!" He finally found something to say. And he was referring to Wryly here.
"Supposed? Since when was warfare based on assumptions and guesses? Damn! You screwed bad, so damn bad here! You went up there, without even checking your rear. If you did, you'd have found out that the entire damn region had no f*cking army to protect it!"
"Don't yell at me like that! It's not my fault that your boy failed to do his task properly! This part is part of the Berserkers' land, he should do his job and defend it."
"Yet he didn't, and yet you moved on such assumption and went far up north, didn't secure the rear or even check on the places around! You moved like a dagger, when you should have moved like a shield! You neglected the areas you conquered, leaving behind nothing to warn you if an enemy approached, or even work their best to delay them! Come on! All these glaring mistakes aren't enough?"
"It's not my fault…"
"Screw you!" I shifted my gaze away, trying my best to not punch him directly in that ugly mask of his. That damn barbaric arrogant bastard! He did all this and wasn't even convinced by a single point of them.
608 I Have A Plan
"I hope you are just putting a fake front here," I said, gritting on my teeth, "I just hope you know what you did wrong and will work on it."
"…"
He didn't answer me and I could only sigh. His arrogance… It was his biggest weakness.
"What are we going to do here?" he jumped over this point so damn fast, "you know we have another battle coming soon."
"This son of b*tch used such a wild card to trap us here," I narrowed my eyes before adding, "however it's not a big deal! We still have time to get out of here. Besides, I have my staff ready to take us wherever I want."
"Will we throw away this city? This place? This region?"
"Don't give me that look," I rolled my eyes when I saw the glaring look in his eyes, "you didn't do your work properly and that comes with a price."
"Let's do our best to crush them then," he pointed at the tamed worms inside the city, "you did it before, and can do it again, right?"
"That's what I plan to do," I slowly nodded, "but that needs the stage to be prepared first."
"What do you mean?".
"You will see," I kept looking around and examined the current arrangement of the enemy forces.
The enemy now had to depend on the big portal accompanying the big pillar far away. The monsters from before swarmed this region, while the scary worm monsters vanished like they never existed.
That was their scariest part, they would vanish without a trace, despite being so damn close by.
Lowering one's guard for even a second would bring death to anyone, no matter who he was.
But there was something that bastard out there would fail to control, something that no one could control; the monstrous nature.
And that was what I planned to use here to get rid of this fierce encirclement.
"What shall I do?"
"You?" I turned to the jumper with one eyebrow raised, "you shall stay here. Enough of the mess you caused. Let me go out there and clean this mess for you."
"No way!" he grabbed my arm in such a fierce way, letting me glare back at him, "let me help! I won't sit back and watch you do all this alone."
"You… You still don't know how bad our current situation is," I used the immense strength of my right arm and shrugged him away, "this fight is way above your current abilities. Don't think about it, this is final! Just stay on the side and think about a way to counter these worms for later fights."
He was about to interrupt me when I stopped him by raising my right palm in his face.
"Are you saying…"
"Yes, we will face these worms a lot, especially during the upcoming battle and during the fourth quest."
"Damn!" he started to get the magnitude of this situation. He thought it was a simple battle, but I knew it was a declaration of an upgrade for all the upcoming battles.
Gaining first hand experience was important. So even if he sat back and did nothing, in fact he was doing something important.
He had to get used to the pattern of these monsters, how they'd appear, how they'd fight, and think of a way to kill them.
This couldn't be summed up as doing nothing!
"Are you going to act now?"
"Can you stop pestering me? Let me think," I rolled my eyes and even went to the other side of the chariot.
I wasn't getting away from him. I was just trying to check the remaining forces in the city.
I controlled my chariot and slowly flew around. The forces remaining were a mixture from the old monsters I gained from the third quest, the monsters I gained from here, and the races I brought.
As for all my warriors and my own forces, they were called back and were inside my inventory, safe and sound.
This fight… I lost it big here. Luckily none of my main forces got lost, except for the newly acquired flying monsters.
"This isn't enough," I could use all of these forces, except the aquatic and aerial ones. These two were indispensable for me. I should work hard at further expanding them, not throwing them like weeds in a fire.
So, I had to get more forces here and I got nothing to lose when using those useless races.
[Send fifty millions here… But one million at a time]
[You mean send them in batches?]
[No, just send one group and wait for me to ask for another]
[Ok]
Detroit was a big city, but having more than a few millions in it would be too much. So I had to use it this way. Also I didn't plan on going out there and crushing all the monsters in one fell swoop.
I knew this would take time, many attempts, and lots of losses.
Yet in the end, that bastard wouldn't be able to stop what I was going to do.
*Flash!*
Few portals flashed fast all over the city, bringing out many races. When I saw these, I realised that I forgot to tell her something.
[Leave any aquatic and aerial races behind in next batches]
[Got it!]
She sent a few aquatic races here. I didn't know if there were any aerial races or not, but if there were, then they should be put aside with the aquatic ones.
"Bringing more fodders?" The jumper came to my side as he overlooked the newly arrived races.
I started signing their contracts in batches while nodding. "We need fodders, lots of them actually."
"Are they going to be enough?"
"Speaking as if you know what I'm going to do here."
"You will push them forward while leading the army from behind to kill all monsters."
"Wrong!" I shook my head.
"Then…"
"Wait and you will see," I focused on signing contracts first before taking a small tour around.
609 The Plan Is A Success!
"Listen up, I want you to go there, stand just inside the border of the city. Once I give the sign, start attacking!"
"So you are going to let them lead the charge as I said!" The jumper totally missed the entire point here.
And I simply decided to ignore him.
Soon he would get what I wanted to do here.
As the newly summoned races went to the spot I pointed at, I moved my chariot and stood just at the border of the city.
This was the furthest I could go without risking any attack from these worms.
"Are you going to summon your forces now?" that jumper was still missing the entire point of this.
"Watch and learn…" I took out my glaive, and at the same moment he took out his sword. He was using a black grade heavy broadsword, one that wasn't like anything he used before.
This jumper… He still thought I was going to fight in the usual way..
I held my glaive, and like before, I used it to create a deep wound at my left arm.
Since I started cultivating, the wounds created were rapidly healing. They didn't take more than a few minutes now for a deep wound like this to vanish without a trace.
"You… Are going to use the technique?" he asked and I didn't answer but with a loud shout:
"Attack!"
As I started making my technique, I let my races run forward.
There were many monsters around, so they just had to pick their enemy and start fighting and killing.
"Are you going to let them…" the jumper started to get what I was trying to do here.
"Yes, they are going to draw these big worms out and I'll hunt them one by one."
"Yet…"
"It will take time and tons of races to sacrifice."
"You… Are you crazy!"
"I have to be," I shrugged, "as long as my enemy is, I have to match him."
I knew he was speaking about the losses I'd get in such a way. I knew it, and accepted such loss.
Let these races act as real fodders, and in return I'd amass lots of these worms and form my own grand army of them.
*Swoosh!*
The first few minutes passed without any movement from these worms. During this, I formed my merged technique, forming the big black sphere and waited.
The worms were like any monster, craving for blood and eating the flesh of races. No matter humans, Selvators, or any race from any part of the universe; all would trigger the monstrous nature of these worms.
Using a million to drive over seven hundred worms out needed time. Just before five minute would pass, the first few worms appeared.
"Come baby come," I didn't wait for them to extend their bodies fully before attacking them using my arms.
I didn't aim to control them, I just dragged their colossal bodies, grabbing them out of the ground, and throwing them inside the city.
Once in the city, I just used a few of the arms to keep them under control. I thought about using other worms under my control, but I feared this would end up in a big fight and losing the new worms.
I didn't want to kill, I wanted to control and force them to sign the loyalty contract.
"Forty-two this time? Damn!" The jumper counted the worms I got from the first wave of attacks.
"This is just the magic of surprise," I knew from this moment, that my enemy would try to exert more control over his worms.
He might help in controlling them for a while, but not all the time. As a wolf, I laid in wait and patience, biding my time, waiting for a single mistake to attack.
After the first wave was thrown to the city, the worms showed no more activity for ten minutes.
"They aren't coming?" the jumper paused before laughing, "that dude… He got scared of you."
"If he won't let them come," I ignored his remark, "then I'll use this time to do better things."
I turned my attention towards the forty-two newly captured worms and started to control them.
At the same time, I released my arms to control the monsters summoned by my enemy.
Who said I got only one million races here? If he gave me time, I'd control millions of monsters.
My black arms were much fiercer than my usual threads. They lacked in number, but they only needed a single touch and the monster would be controlled.
The controlled monsters would release a few thinner arms to infect the surrounding monsters. The speed wasn't that much, but it worked for me at least.
I didn't even bother to force them to sign contracts. I knew most if not all of them would end up dying here.
So I just gave them the order to keep fighting in a close area around the city. I didn't set them loose, as this would make it harder for me to grab worms if they were far away from the city.
In return for this, the ground started to get drenched with blood of races and monsters alike. Worms would listen to that enemy's orders to a certain limit.
In front of a thick blood scent, how would they resist? If they resisted, for how long?
I kept the monsters under my control around the city killing without any pause. As for the races, they lost enough to make them stand by the city.
If not for my direct order to not retreat to the city, they would have retreated a long time ago.
Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed, a quarter passed… All the way to half an hour and not a single worm appeared.
But they couldn't resist anymore.
*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*
One, two, five, twelve, fifteen… I looked and more worms were coming out towards this region.
"Come," and in response, I moved my arms to grab these worms nearby and throw them inside the city.
610 Time To Wrap Everything Up
The control process of these monsters took as long as one hour. So the forty-two worms from before were still resisting and not under my control yet.
That didn't stop me. My entire chariot was filled with blue graded bones, as I kept absorbing them to replenish the consumed energy and form more arms.
Ten… Fifteen… Twenty… Twenty-five… I kept grabbing worms over the city until I got around thirty-four before the outside worms managed to kill all my forces outside.
"Great harvest," I looked at the seventy something worms twisting fiercely on the ground, trying to resist my control and arms in satisfaction.
As I had no need for my arms to work outside, I focused all of them over these worms. This helped in accelerating the process of controlling these worms.
"Now what? Bringing more races from god knows where?" the jumper asked as he kept his silence and watched during the past time.
"Not before I'd control these worms first.".
"Can you leave one for me?" he suddenly asked, "I want to dissect and get to know it better," he explained when I gave him a questionable look.
"Ok," his request made sense. If he got to know what was inside that big worm, he would know if there was any weakness in its body, and got to know where it would hurt most.
I also didn't know such info. "Let me know what you discovered," I asked before focusing on controlling the worms, "take that one, it looks pretty aggressive and violent."
Amidst all the worms here, that dude was twisting the most. Even when it got all its body covered with my black arms like a thick layer of black coat, it kept resisting with such fierceness.
So killing it wouldn't only relieve my arms from controlling it, but it looked special. I didn't know if there were ranks in this worm world or not, but to me this dude looked quite special.
"Will you let me have the honour?"
"Go and try out your luck," I controlled my arms to reveal a part of its head, "attack there. No matter what, the heads were always the most vital place in any creature."
"Got it," the jumper jumped off my chariot using the long rope before going towards that monster.
I had to just keep channelling my energy towards my technique to keep it running. So I had time to spare to watch what he was doing.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
It looked like he was a blacksmith hammering with his big iron hammer over a piece of metal. The loud clanging sound came with each hit, and yet the jumper never changed his mark.
He kept targeting the same point over and over again during the next hour. It looked like these skulls were made out of the most sturdy ore in the world!
But under such continuous hammering, even the mightiest ore would melt and break down. So just as I fully controlled and bound all the worms here with contracts, I waited for ten minutes before that skull got cracked open and the worm monster issued its last roaring cry.
"At last," I heard a tiring long sigh from the jumper, "I'll start working on it now. You can retreat your tentacles or whatever."
"Ok," I knew it wouldn't make a difference now by recalling them back. I got all the monsters under my control. "Time to continue the plan," as the jumper started dissecting this colossal worm's body, I had to resume my plan here.
I got around three hundred and fifty worms, not even half of the original number of worms here.
Each time I tried, I ended up controlling from sixty up to a hundred. That dude kept trying to control the worms, preventing them from coming out.
However each time he failed in the end. Fighting against one's nature was a big mistake. He was destined to fail here.
Wave after wave I kept sending my races out there. They died in the end, but they secured me lots of worms. With each attack wave, I took a bite off that bastard's scary worm army.
It took me roughly twenty hours straight of continuous work to finally control the one thousand worms.
One thousand with one missing. During this time, the jumper kept working diligently at the colossal body of that worm. But even after all these hours, he didn't even finish one tenth of its immense size.
This… It seemed it would take much longer than I and that jerk expected.
"Take it back," I said, "I'll go and clear the area around here. As for you, just wrap your work here."
"Not now!" he shouted while raising her ugly mask to face me. The blood of this worm monster was dark green, adding a gross touch over this jerk. "I need to get to the weak spots of this monster before doing anything else."
"Ok," I was glad he finally got to think before acting rashly as before. I turned my gaze towards the distance.
All the land around Detroit was covered with monsters coming from the distant pillar. It was time to take that damn thing away and clear this place.
"Come out!" I didn't summon my private army so far. But as I was going to conclude business here, it was time to use them.
I didn't cancel my combined technique. I needed it to grab that damn portal with the pillar out of earth and store these inside my shadow world.
As I summoned my deadliest forces, the fight was one sided. I didn't aim towards killing the monsters like before, I simply led my army to move like a spear, and flew directly towards that portal and pillar.
I held little hope to see that bastard's silhouette there. But as I reached that place, I found nothing but monsters.
"Come in here," I controlled a few of my arms to grab that big pillar and store it inside my inventory. I had to study this thing and the other pillars when I got the chance.
611 Don't Use Them!
"Kill everything!" I gave the order while starting to work on controlling monsters at the same time.
The two grand monster armies I amassed were ruined in this battle. So I needed to replenish some, and leave them under the jumper's leadership.
Even if he did commit lots of mistakes, he was a valuable asset that I couldn't replace for the time being.
Besides, he decided to stay here and work over that worm carcass, trying to learn its secrets.
The battle didn't last longer than one hour. I didn't use the worms to fight here. Instead, I gave them the order to scatter around this region and work as my eyes.
I told them to scatter, spread and find other worms around before coming back and tell me about their places.
That bastard was able to use such a weapon in this battle. I knew worms live in groups, lying in wait until they got the order to move around or found any prey to feast upon.
Using one of their kin to spy on them was the best way I had. Once I'd get the news, I'd move and start hunting more of them..
No matter what, I'd add all the worms to my personal collection until I'd get enough to start attacking other worms. This was my plan to counter that bastard.
However, during the next ten hours, I got nothing back from my worms. I kept checking their numbers all the time. Yet I didn't lose a single one.
"So… You were just testing this weapon here or what?" After waiting for five more hours, I started to grow suspicious.
Was he just testing the worms in this fight? Really? Worms were such a famous deadly breed of monsters, their fame was enough to make anyone know their fierceness.
Something seemed off here. But I let my worms keep scanning around and didn't call them back.
I just gave them the order to scatter north, south, and east from here. These were the places close to my kingdom, the most critical places in the upcoming quest.
"I forgot…" Just after giving them such orders, I recalled my scattered teams that were tracking down the enemy forces. [What's up?] I sent this to all of them, including Leo and Alex.
I received tons of messages from them. I didn't know why I didn't get any word from them before. But when I read the messages, I got to know the answer.
"So they are doing nothing new… Interesting!" I got this answer as a copy and paste from all of them.
The forces just settled in the cities and towns, did nothing else. Not a single one stepped outside the cities and towns. And that was slightly weird.
I thought about worms. But were my teams strong and scary for the enemy to lean towards using such weapons?
It would be like using a hammer to smash a fly!
I doubted that! The only explanation was either the loss this time was so big over the shoulders of my enemy, or he just achieved what he wanted with such control of towns and cities.
[Keep watching] I sent, [Don't lower your guards]
I didn't want them to get discovered just before I'd start moving out.
Just as I closed the chat with them, I saw a grand army approaching from a distance. For a moment, I mistook it to be a hostile force.
But soon I realised they were humans. They were the ones I sent before coming here as reinforcements. They just arrived now, after the battle ended by many hours.
From the look of it, they didn't lose much during their march to here. If that bastard had worms left, he wouldn't leave such a big army untouched.
"Wow! You already summoned an army for me?" The jumper took a few minutes of rest and came up when he noticed the slowly approaching army.
"They aren't for you," I rolled my eyes when I heard his words, "you just scatter them around. Let them take control of the cities and towns here."
"Just for that?!" he looked in doubt, and this was my plan from the start.
"Select capable ones and add them as friends," I added, "appoint them as leaders of each city and town. Give strict orders to watch the area around, send patrol units to secure the area. If they spotted worms, they have to notify you."
"I didn't get the weakness of them yet."
"It's not for you, dummy! Once spotted, make sure to let me know ASAP!"
"Sure," he shrugged, "you are the only one able to stand against such terror anyway."
"Hopefully someone will be the second," I sighed, "now can I leave this region to you?"
"Sure. what about north?"
"If you asked me this again, I'd hit you in the face!" I fiercely responded to his daring request, "leave north out of the picture for now. We got our hands busy handling all this mess."
"I got it," I didn't know why but I felt he wasn't sincere about his answer.
"I'll leave now," I have nothing else to do here. This fight wasted more than a day. I ended up gaining flying, aquatic, and fierce worm monsters indeed. But it also delayed my plans to prepare for the big battle coming up.
I called back all my warriors, left the monsters I controlled under the jumper's control.
"Don't use my aquatic or flying monsters until it's time for the big fight," I said in warning before leaving, "and don't try to order them. I already gave them the order to ignore you."
"You are a bastard that will never change no matter what!"
"Humph! Coming from such a jerk, it's a compliment and not an insult."
"Screw you!"
"F*ck off!"
We two glared at each other before I took out my staff, and selected a place nearby my capital.
It was time for me to return and start organising the house. I wasted one day and there were around a week or so left for the upcoming big battle.
612 Great Changes Back Home
"Impressive!"
I was gone for slightly over a day now. But when I returned to the outer zone of my capital, I saw great changes there.
Before, the digging process expanded and covered almost everywhere. The dirt was the most remarkable thing to see around here.
The central zone was the only place with ores melted down. Foundation was started to be laid there, and in a rudimentary form.
But now things looked much different! The diggings stopped, and now all the capital was filled with workers moving to and fro, moving melted ores towards the deep holes to lay them in there.
The foundations started to take shape, with mixed coloured ores used in the process. Standing high in the air gave me the impression that I was watching a festival of colours or something.
This scene left a very good impression indeed..
As for the field stretching outside the capital, the crops started to grow slowly out of earth. They were green, pink, red, blue, and even black in colour.
Looking at the large fields stretching outside, it looked like earth got a new coat or something. It looked cool!
"This… It's taking more shape to be like a big city," I grinned before recalling something.
I took out my pillar and started to use the Thundering Might shield to cover the vast fields here. This place was going to be the core of my people's food. Losing it would deal a big blow to my people.
So I had to secure it. I saw a few forts getting built at the border of these fields, just on the other bank of the river I used to nourish this region.
As for the other side of the river, the soil there was getting richer with energy. I knew at some point, it would be suitable for planting crops there, but that would take long months to do that.
There were workers building long walls on the home side of the river. With the big forts on the other side, this place would look like a big fortress, impregnable to any ground forces.
Using my shield, this place would become much safer. From my last battle with that bastard, and his persistence in using the sealing pillars to stop my shield from forming, I got something.
The incidence of him giving ability to his forces to penetrate through my shield seemed to be an exception. Or perhaps he had to pay a hefty price to make it done.
Anyway, if he could repeat it easily, he shouldn't have leant towards using the sealing pillars to stop my shield.
And that was good news to me. At least my capital would be secured, most of the time.
It took me five times of my skill to cover the entire field. The shield merged with the bigger one covering my capital. And I knew gradually and with time, this big shield would expand.
If I could, if I got time, I'd go around and spread my shields all over the place. But this move had to wait for a later time.
Once I finished doing this, I went directly towards the capital. I first took a wide tour in slow speed, watching my people working diligently all over the capital.
"They are doing fine, not needing any more help," I thought of bringing the rest of the races here to work with them. But it seemed the capital had enough workers.
Besides, the workers here established a synchronised way of work. Adding any more would risk ruining such a good environment.
I went to check over the training grounds. The boys there were doing great! In a single day time, the number of ships increased by three, and four were now standing in the frontal hellish zone.
The ship which had my teammates in was at the furthest point now, going even beyond what it was when I picked the spearhead.
It seemed the spearhead returned with full energy and desire to help the team better. Their performance was superb! And behind, more ships were seeing them as a role model right now.
Then I went towards the coast region. This place held much importance for me. Once I reached there, I recalled my earlier plans of building aquatic forts around the coast to protect the shore.
The walls were getting in shape, expanding for a large distance up to the horizon. In regular intervals, forts would appear. They needed more time to be fully built, at least three to four more days.
We had at least eight days till the start of the fourth quest. I'd have to fight that bastard from the mainland in seven days. I had to assume that the Hectors wouldn't sit idle and watch me distracted without intervening.
So we had around one week left before the big fight began. And before that, all the defensive buildings here should get done.
"I have to go back and ask Isac about this," she asked for aquatic races, and I got busy since then.
I got her the races she needed, but had to take her back to the second Earth. Alongside Hilary and Angelica, the three were now busy rebuilding the forest world there.
But that didn't mean I should neglect the work here. I opened my profile page and opened a portal from there to arrive at the second Earth.
"Damn!!!"
If I was surprised by what my people did in just one day at my capital, then seeing the work done here on second Earth made my eyes wide open.
I left this place almost one day ago. It had more progress in buildings in the central zone than my capital.
But right now… All I saw was long and towering buildings, wide streets paved with colourful and beautiful looking stones, and I even spotted fountains and decorations all over the place.
This… It wasn't just a single city that got built, but over five towns also completely finished. More than that, the roads linking the six big settlements were done as well.
613 What The Hell Do Cosmetics Mean?!!!
It looked from high above like a flower with opened petals, five petals actually. The work done here was finished, and now more digging was going on in the wide and clear space around this cluster of settlements.
I could see people walking in the streets, few talking, few laughing, and mostly having a wide smile over their faces. I kept moving my eyes around while using my Hawk Eye skill, feeling like I was teleported not to another world but another time!
I moved my chariot towards the village I once visited. I knew one day time in my real world meant twenty days passing here. But seeing such a change in such a short time span still left a deep touch over me.
As I went there, I saw lots of people coming in and out from there, seemingly like there was some sort of a big meeting.
Once my chariot appeared, all the bustling stopped. They recognised my chariot, and knew their lord was back.
"The lord… He is back!" A single shout started a ruckus as many shouted in greetings while few started running towards the three big buildings in the centre of this village.
I knew they were the three girls' boys, and they were going to notify them about my arrival.
"You finally decided to come," Hilary was the first to come, running as fast as she could before jumping and resting in my embrace..
"I only stayed there for one day," I kissed her on the forehead while caressing her long hair.
"Liar! What a day? You stayed away for three weeks!"
She pursed her lips in such a childish way, making her look much sexier in my eyes. I knew this was a hard concept to get, but the time difference caused such a mess.
The difference was big and useful, but in such relation with Hilary it caused such disturbance.
"Welcome back," Isac said in greeting. That girl looked more collected and held a better grasp over her act. She didn't sway like girls did when walking, standing there firm and erect like a real man.
"Did you see the city and the five towns here?" Angelica came while shouting even before her head would appear from the direction of the stairs.
"You did a great job here," I said in great honesty and admiration, "the place looked much different."
"It's thanks to all the races and humans you brought over," Angelica said as she slowly came towards me. This girl… It seemed she took her time coming as she changed and wore a new armour.
It was short, exposing the perfect contour of her body and seemingly flawless white thighs. Dressing in such golden and red armour gave her a sexy impression.
"You…" something seemed off a little as Hilary glared at her while standing up from my embrace, "I warned you already, didn't I?"
"Humph, he is the lord, and I have to come and greet him," Yes, something was off. It seemed these two chicks got on the bad side of each other at last.
And the reason for that was clear to me.
"Enough," I said, interrupting such a girlish fight before it would expand, "I'm going to take you and you away from here for now."
I pointed at Hilary and Isac, "The time for the big battle is drawing near. And the defensive buildings are far from being ready. Also we need to build the aquatic forts."
"I need aquatic races," Isad said in a tone that held no emotion in it.
"I got what you want," I paused, giving a warning glance to the other two chicks, "just go and get ready. Bring your boys here. I'll go around first and stop my races from cutting anymore trees."
"They cleared a lot already, it's time for them to stop," Isac said in agreement.
"What about the relic sites?" But before any of them would move a finger, Hilary turned to me and asked.
"What about them?" I didn't get her point, "have you explored any yet?"
"Not yet," Angelica shook her head, "we were waiting for you to come and do it together."
"Do it together? Humph! I'll take him with me," Hilary spoke in such a domineering tone and attitude.
"I dare you do that!" and Angelica didn't take a single step back.
"Sigh!" from the side, Isac rolled her eyes in helplessness, "they were like this when a certain relic site was discovered."
"Really?!" It seemed I got it all wrong about what caused such a wound in the relationship between the two girls' relation, "what's special about this relic site then?"
"It has cosmetic potions there!" The two girls turned to me and said at the same time, making me take a step back.
Damn! These girls… Did they get into such a heated conflict just for cosmetics? What the hell did cosmetics even mean?!! Were they this important?!!!
"What's special about these… Cosmetics?" I asked in such an innocent tone and looked at the three girls.
But from the looks I got, I knew I made a great mistake in even asking!
"Come with me!" Hilary jumped and grabbed me from the arm.
"No, come with me!" Angelica didn't delay and jumped as well to grab my other arm.
And in between the two, I stood there in total daze, without knowing what the hell was going on here.
Damn girls! Could someone just explain to me what these cosmetics even mean first?!!!
"Leave him, you two barbarics!" Isac shouted, intervened and pulled me away from these two. "He has work to do, we all have!"
"He is my man!" Hilary didn't let go of me this easily and followed my dragged body by Isac's hands, "he will come with me to that relic site!"
"No way! That relic site was discovered by my men!" Angelica didn't fall behind and shouted back.
"All of your men are originally his, dumb girl!"
614 The Bet Over Cosmetic Relic Site
"You are the dumb one! Just being his girl doesn't mean he will listen to whatever you say!"
"You bet? Hey Hye, will you come with me to that relic site?"
"Stop using your dirty tactics over him!"
The debate didn't get any cooler, instead it grew fiercer. I could only watch from the middle of all this and sigh.
"Shut the hell up! Can anyone first explain what cosmetics even mean? And why have I been there with any of you to get that damn relic explored?"
I didn't like this atmosphere! I was missing something, and someone had to fill me in.
"They set a rule once you left," Isac took the role of explaining things to me, "they will search for relics, only to enter these when you arrive."
"Then…" I looked at the two kitties inserting their claws in each other's neck, "why are you two fighting then? I can just take the two of you with me!".
"No!" The response came swiftly from the two at the same time and in the same breath. Well, at least they agreed on something.
"We agreed this relic will belong to one girl!" Hilary said, crossing her arms and giving me such a look as if she was asking for a favour and my support here.
"Only one girl will have it," Angelica did the same, but this girl exposed a larger part of her chest, making me inwardly sigh.
"So you two sat the rules and had a bet, and want me to carry such a burden? Come on! If you decide to bet, you should be the ones taking the risk here, not me!"
"What do you mean?" Isac asked while the two girls looked at me in a weird way, "they decided to let you select one of them!"
"This… Won't be fair," I shook my head, "if I have to choose, then I'll choose Hilary for sure."
"See? I won! Hahaha!" Hilary laughed, pointing out towards Angelica who rolled her eyes.
"Stupid! You are stupid! He didn't select you, dummy! He just said he would if the decision was up to him."
"And it is!"
"Not per his words," Angelica pointed at me, "he doesn't approve of such a way!"
"But…" Hilary looked at me and I had no other way but to give the two chicks here my opinion.
"You should bet on something. For example, why not bet over the accomplishment between Earth and here?"
"In what way?" Isac asked, "don't forget, there is a time difference between the two worlds."
"I know that," I rolled my eyes as this was something already known to me, "so we can do it this way… We will select a part of land here. I will also select a same sized piece of land on Earth. You both will have the same number of workers and the same support of resources and talents. The one to finish building in the shortest time will win this bet."
"Deal!" Hilary and Angelica said at the same time.
"You two… How do you agree without knowing how the time is going to be calculated? The two worlds are far apart, with time differences making it even worse to judge!"
"This…"
"How are you going to judge then?"
The two girls looked up at me and I bitterly smiled. The two lost their heads in the middle of all this debate, jumped over my words and agreed even before fully understanding what they were going through.
Damn! Was this cosmetic thing so damn important to them or what?
"You will be the judge here," I said to Isac, "calculate since she starts until the city is built. I will be the judge on Earth. And the fastest to build will be the winner."
"That's fair," Isac nodded, "leave it to me. But… We have blacksmith talents here, very fierce indeed."
"Yes, about that…" Hilary paused, looking at me in a pleading, "can we get some back?"
"Sure," I didn't have any issue for doing that, "we will agree upon the number of blacksmith talents and even their grades to help each of you. I need part of the blacksmiths here to come back with me to Earth. The blacksmiths there are working slowly compared to yours."
"Ok, let's do it!" Angelica was pumped up with what I said.
"I will get that relic for myself!" Hillary said in challenge, and Angelica exchanged explosive gazes with her.
"Sigh! How long have these two been acting like that?" I looked at Isac, and this girl seemed to go through her own trouble during the past weeks.
"Two weeks so far," she sighed, "I tried to solve things here but failed. Sometimes, a big shot must say his piece to solve the problem."
"And it's solved at last," I sighed as well, "now go and set the rules."
"Me?" Isac pointed at herself in a weird way, "why me? Why not you?"
"I have many things to do," I shrugged, "plus the main theme will be decided by you. Select one design of a city for the two to build it. Set the number of workers, blacksmiths, the amount of ores, set everything for the two to compete fairly."
"…"
"Also I want the designs of the aquatic forts to be ready. I'll bring aquatic races to my capital on the real Earth. You just tell me what you need so they can build it properly."
"This… Are you sure you don't want me there?" she paused before adding, "the world here is peaceful and doesn't need my attention. The drawings are available for the workers to build cities and towns based on what I planned."
"This…" I paused, thought about the value of the time difference, "ok. I will try and come to visit you every day for a few minutes. If anything happens, I'll be able to intervene."
"Ok," she nodded, "I'll go and prepare my boys then. I'll leave a few to help leading workers here. Ah, we found lots of mines. The ores here are all in good grades, just like the woods and everything else."
"Everything else like what?" I asked while thinking deeply about the value of time difference on my cultivation speed.
615 Taking A Tour At Second Earth World
"We found other forms of energy, like the silver liquid, the green mud, and the red fog."
She stated such weird names even for me. I didn't know what all these things were. "Are they useful?" I asked, trying to understand their value first.
"They are a much higher form of energy than stat points for example," she used something I could understand, "plus they can be used in generating energy to be used to fuel the cities and towns."
"Really?" I raised both eyebrows when I heard what she just said, "do you know how to do it?"
"Not me of course," she pointed at Hilary before adding, "but she has a good amount of rare talents who can. I dunno where you found those scary talents, but they can make gold out of dirt."
"Talents? You mean the ones I bought last?" I turned to Hilary and she seemed to not fully get what Isac meant.
"Sigh! You had such a task and got yourself busy fighting with that girl," Isac rolled her eyes, took the role of being a paragon again, "you have really useful talents. You have to know how to use them better!"
"How don't you handle this task then?" I turned to Isac, "you seem to be aware of what these talents should be used for.".
"I… I have lots of things to do!"
"You finished mapping out this part of the world, right?" I calmly spoke and she slowly nodded, "and you already finished a great deal of mapping my kingdom. So you are the least one with work here, right?"
"But…"
"Hilary will supervise the building of the coastal border. You only have to supervise the building of the aquatic forts. You have nothing else to worry about."
"…"
"You will handle these talents. Go, go and send someone to bring those talents. They will come with you to Earth. Let them work together with the MIT youths."
"MIT… You mean…"
"The youths working to solve the issue of the energy in my capital," I nodded, "let the two combine efforts and work with what they knew to bring better results."
"Ok," she reluctantly agreed. She had no other choice but to do that.
"Go now, you all have many things to do," I looked at the village down below, "I'll take that building and stay in it after finishing my round."
"It's Hilary's…" Angelica looked envious towards Hilary who gave her a sly smile in return.
"Go, I have to check over the progress of my people here," I waved my hands to the three girls to leave. After they left, I realised that I didn't get what cosmetics even meant.
Sigh! I just hoped it wouldn't be a great treasure or else all their efforts would be wasted. If it was a treasure, I'd keep it for myself.
As they got down, I started moving my chariot again. I started by taking a slow tour around the already finished towns and city.
This was a sight I wanted to see everywhere here and on Earth. My humans were walking, talking, living their lives in such peace and happiness.
That was the life I wanted to be in my kingdom. Even when the three kingdoms back in my days were in their prime, they failed to give such a sense of security to their people.
I read a record once, as the biggest regret of one of the kings who ruled one of the three kingdoms there. His biggest regret was to fail in providing security for humans, considering this failure as a sign for the failure of humanity in the apocalypse.
And I would totally agree with him.
If that king was living in my time and came to see this scene, he would feel relieved that his dream was fulfilled.
I took my time flying over the towns and cities here. I took more than three hours looking at the faces of humans with bright smiles, even hearing many laughs coming from down below.
I liked this atmosphere. I knew this was possible because this world was void of apocalypse.
Was the apocalypse a curse to any world it visited or a blessing? Looking at such life here I knew it was a curse. But I wouldn't succumb to such a curse easily.
I'd try my best, do everything I could, and turn my Earth into something similar to such peace and tranquility here.
After I'd seen enough, I moved my chariot far away. I set loose the races here since I came and decided to establish a foothold for me here.
Long time passed, a long time that I didn't feel at all. During these weeks, the area cleared on the hands of these races was really huge!
It took me ten hours to cross the distance they cleared using my chariot's highest speed. It was simply unbelievable!
The world that was once filled with dense trees and filled with forests was now void of any sign of life. The ground looked naked without its thick cover of trees and plants.
"Stop working," Once I arrived, I shouted at them, "gather everything and return back to one of the towns."
I didn't give such an order through my contract interface. I wanted to check and explore the world while doing that.
Just after flying in a circular path for an hour, I noticed some sort of digging at a place not far from the world of trees.
I looked at it and recalled what the two girls were fighting about. I was curious about these relics, and so I went to check that place.
It was as I imagined, a deep hole that had signs of old civilization down below. Old statues, old buildings, and even a few corpses appeared in the depth of this hole.
I stood there and examined this place using my Hawk Eye skill. It was just weird, how such a world that was bustling with life and prosperity ended in such a miserable way.
All that was left were these statues and parts of ancient buildings, covered with dirt, and forgotten forever.
If not for my arrival here, these relic sites would be lost forever without anyone even knowing they existed.
616 A Conflict!
I left this sight while pondering about the future of my kingdom and my humans. Would we reach such a low point in our civilization to lose everything and go extinct?
I didn't want to see such a result. And the only way I thought about to avoid such fate was to write down lots of rules to organise the life of who would come later.
I returned back to wander around and order these races to stop working. As I did that, I started to think about an issue.
These races were used to expand the area of my territory here. But now they had no role to play.
If they were my humans, then I'd consider this as a deserved time of rest. My humans were all slaves, had such a hard life in the universe.
But these were races. They were abducted from ongoing apocalypses. They were fighters. If I left them without a job to do, then a riot might happen..
The Last thing I'd want was for my humans to fight in this world. I didn't want to see wars here. This world had seen enough, my boys had seen enough. It was time for peace and rest for my humans.
So, what should I give as a task for these races? Build more cities and towns? Work at mines? Start digging the relic sites?
I was empty of any suggestions, and decided to ask the girls once I'd return back.
The journey here took much longer than I expected. I thought I'd take a few hours to complete the tour, but ended up wasting half a day.
In the end, I visited all the places here, got to see how big the emptied place under my control was, and ordered everyone back to one town.
Then I returned.
Once I came back, the first thing I saw was trouble!
The races I sent back were rejected by my humans. The humans gathered up, stood between the races and entered the towns and city.
I could already smell the scent of gunpowder here. If not for the girls standing with their people in between the two huge masses, things would have gone south.
"Sigh! Deep grudges and old pain isn't easily forgotten," I shook my head when I saw this scene.
When I brought humans here for the first time, I promised them something. I'd assign a few races to help humans in their daily life activities.
But it seemed if I did such a thing, a brutal ending would come to those races. I didn't stand on these races' side, but I would never allow for such injustice to be present in my kingdom.
Hatred was like a plaque! Once it infested a place, it would fester and spread, ending up by ruining the entire place in a blood bath.
I didn't want to see anything like this here. So I decided not to hurry and assign races to any human. Not until my humans would live long enough to forget the old grudges, cleanse their souls from this heavy desire for revenge.
"I need something to make my voice reach everyone," I opened the market, looking for a horn with the ability to magnify sound.
I found a nice gold grade horn that could make my voice reach to the people I intended in my mind.
That was a great tool indeed. I instantly bought it and took it out.
It didn't look like a horn, not like what I had in mind at least. It looked more like a glove, with many conical shaped small things on its back.
I put it on my right hand, and felt a connection with it the next moment.
"So… This is how it works," I thought first about delivering my voice to all the races and humans down below. Once I did, my voice came like it had some sort of melody to it.
And the next moment, I saw all the heads down below raised to watch me.
"Listen up," I cleared my throat before adding, "I didn't bring you all here to fight! You want to fight and create a blood bath? Then let me have such honour and kill you simply by using the power of contract."
My words came in such a calm tone, but as everyone listened to them as if I was speaking in their ears, my words looked domineering and scary.
"I don't want any excuses," I heard a loud noise coming from the mixture of the two sides' voices, speaking in defence for themselves. "All I want is to live in peace and harmony. This world, this place… It's not like anything else you all experienced, humans and other races alike."
I moved my chariot around to add more weight to my words while continuing, "I won't allow for such a scene to be repeated again! From now on, humans will live next to races in the towns and cities here. You will all work together to build more magnificent cities and towns. The great talents of you will have the chance to serve in higher positions. You just have to let go of your old grudges, live your new lives, or risk losing them in my hands."
I had to be crystal clear about this point. I wanted my humans to have slaves to raise their self confidence. However I didn't want them to use this as a chance to get back for all the injustice they felt.
If they wanted to do so, they'd better volunteer in my forces, go back to the real hell of apocalypse, and fight till their heart content or die there.
"Anyone wanting to fight, have the desire to shed blood, they can simply do that by joining my forces. I have another world, where the apocalypse is running wild there. You are welcomed to join my forces and fight in that hell if you want. Anyone wanting to do so, just look for the people I'll assign for such a task and you will be transported in a day to that hell."
617 Assigning Tasks To The Two Girls
I ended my words by saying this:
"From now on, you will have a building to live in. If the city and towns aren't enough, then go and build much more to live in. I will select a group to maintain order and peace here. They will take note of any evildoers, and I promise you that anyone on their list will suffer greatly for his deeds."
I let my chariot rotate twice around their heads in fast speed in a terrifying show of my might before going towards the village.
[Come to me] I sent this to the three girls, while stopping my chariot just above Hilary's mansion.
I entered the mansion and found it impressive from the inside. That girl… She seemed to have a thing for statues as she filled the entire place inside with them.
She didn't forget to make lots of furniture out of wood. In her eyes, wood was such a precious material, something that she never got to have in large amounts before, not like this time.
The mansion was three stories, with the ground one having three wide halls, connected together by narrow paths. There were few rooms there, with a bathroom that looked little like what I used to have at my time.
There were few colourful ores, looking like gems. I watched the place while the girls took their time to arrive..
"You were fierce back there," Hilary said the moment she came.
"Didn't you promise to give each human a group of races as slaves?" Angelica added as she came in.
"It won't do good this way," Isac shook his head, seemingly getting the meaning behind what I did.
"I had to do so," I sighed, "the humans we have here aren't in their right mind. They act on impulse, based on the lives they lived before, not the current one they are having at the moment."
"But… You should be on their side!" Hilary said in argument.
"And I'm," I nodded, "I'm protecting them from themselves. Once they regain sanity and get used to life here, I'll honour what I promised them."
"I… Just hope you know what you are doing," Hilary dropped the matter, "we are ready to move. Can you take us back?"
"Have you decided what to do with their little thing?" I didn't directly answer her, but looked at Isac as I asked her about that.
And she nodded. "Everything is set and they know they got everything they needed. I also delivered the plans for developing this world to one of my trusted subordinates here."
"We can start right after they'd leave," Angelica said and I rolled my eyes in return.
"Don't do anything until I come back," I said, "or else I'd lose count on the time you spent here on doing your job."
"Cool," she nodded.
"Come with me then," I said to Hilary and Isac, "and bring up your men as well."
"They are outside, waiting for you to open the portal," Hillary looked excited and pumped up about going back to Earth and starting her task.
I led the two out while Angelica watched us leave. Once returned, the two girls looked in disappointment towards the current status of the capital.
"Don't judge," I said in a sincere tone, "the time difference played a big role in what the other world has."
I knew coming back from the peace, prosperity, and tranquillity of the second Earth world to here had a shocking impact over them. Even I felt the same, and could only inwardly sigh.
It wasn't that easy to return back to such a fierce world when you had one that was filled with peace.
"I'll leave developing this place over to you then," I said these words to Isac, "make sure to use the talents you brought with you to help the MIT youths."
"Ok," she nodded, with such unwillingness over her face. I knew she didn't like getting more work, but she had to do this as everyone else was busy.
"As for you," I turned to Hilary, "I know you want to start your bet as fast as possible, but don't neglect other tasks as well. You have to oversee the building of the coastal wall and defences, help Isac in building the underwater forts, alright?"
"This…"
"Isac won't be the only one with extra tasks. If you don't have time, then delay your bet with Angelica for later."
"I can't! I have to win!"
"I won't judge until you start and finish," I rolled my eyes, "and we are facing a great battle coming up in seven days. Don't be this selfish and start helping like everyone else."
"Where are the others? Why not assign this task to any of them?"
"Don't be like this! If there is anyone free, do you think I'll let you do these tasks? Anyway, I'm going back now. Go down there and start working fast. I'll come and check on you once every day in the other world's time."
"Hye!"
"Just go down and do what I asked for," I waved my hand to stop her from trying to persuade me. Everyone else was doing their best to help strengthen my kingdom in one way or another.
I watched her leave in such heavy steps and a dejected expression on her face while Isac gave me a thumbs up from the side.
As they left, I had now to go back to the second Earth and start my cultivation session.
As I went back, I first checked over the situation inside the settlements here.
After my direct threatening speech with them, both humans and races started to live side by side. However the old atmosphere of laughter and happiness vanished.
I could feel the stress and pressure permeating the air. I sighed, and knew this would take slightly longer time before they'd get over this ordeal.
Isac left behind a group of really active people. During the time I spent in going to and returning from Earth, they started leading a large number of races and humans to work over building new settlements around.